Florida State breaks SEC run as final No. 1 in AP

Florida State finished No. 1 in the final Associated Press college football poll, ending the Southeastern Conference’s record streak of seven national championships.

The Seminoles received all 60 first-place votes from the media panel after beating Auburn 34-31 in the BCS championship game on Monday night in the Rose Bowl.

Florida State’s third AP national title (1993 and ‘99) ties it for ninth-most with rival Florida and Texas.

The Tigers (12-2) finished second in their extraordinary turnaround season, but for the first time since Texas was No. 1 in 2005, the Southeastern Conference is not on top of the final rankings.

Michigan State was third, followed by South Carolina and Missouri. Oklahoma finished sixth and Alabama was No. 7. So the SEC will have to settle for having four teams in the top seven. The SEC has seven ranked teams overall with No. 14 LSU, No. 18 Texas A&M and No. 24 Vanderbilt.

No. 8 Clemson, Oregon and UCF completed the top 10. UCF has never been ranked higher.

No. 11 Stanford, No. 12 Ohio State and No. 13 Baylor finished outside the top 10 after spending much of the season in the elite group.

No. 15 Louisville was followed by UCLA and Oklahoma State.

Southern California is 19th and Pac-12 rival Arizona State is 20th.

The final five were Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Duke, Vanderbilt and Washington.